hi, i have been given 2 bits of completely contradictory advice and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about this.

my mental health person has told me i should try 'thought stopping' - basically, think up my feared thought until it is very clear then shout 'stop' and ping an elastic band on my wrist and conjure up a good thought and focus on that. i am supposed to keep practising this so that i can eventually conjure up a good thought whenever i need to. to be honest, im not convinced as i feel that if i get rid of a bad thought it is still there somewhere in my mind just waiting to get at me again.

however, i am reading a book at the moment called 'the worry cure' which says whatever you do, do not pratice 'thought stopping' as the more you try not to think of something the more important it becomes in your mind. They specifically criticise the elastic band method.

Instead they suggest 'flooding' which seems to be that when i have my feared thought e.g. 'its possible i have cancer' i need to repeat it in my mind 200 times so that i eventually get bored of it and no longer give it any importance. To be honest, i actuallly feel this would be more beneficial, in the same way that if you say a word over and over again to yourself it no longer makes sense. I did try it last night and actually fell asleep repeating it over and over again, although i woke up feeling awful, so who knows???

anyway, does anyone have any experience of these methods or have any advice?

thanks, mag